


Live Long and...?

by Ilthit



Category: Red Dwarf (UK TV)
Genre: Existential Angst, F/M, Gen, Masturbation, Microfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:27:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24044383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilthit/pseuds/Ilthit
Summary: A semidrabble cycle of eight.
Relationships: Kristine Kochanski/Dave Lister
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5
Collections: Semidrabbles: 50-word stories





	Live Long and...?

_Space_  
  
"I'm going to go back to Earth," said Lister, looking up at the sky through the haze of beer. His drinking mate, best friend for the night, grunted and downed a whiskey shot. "Find somewhere I belong. Somewhere nice, like Fiji, where there's no work, and the sun's always shining."

_-_

_Air_  
  
"There's no air out there," Lister said one end-of-shift, staring into a monitor showing the space outside.   
  
"Duh." Rimmer sneered. "We are in space, genius."  
  
Lister turned off the monitor. He'd been trying to describe something, a feeling, but he'd never been good at finding the words. Why even try?  
  
 _-_

_Smell_  
  
"What's that smell?" Rimmer sniffed, nostrils flaring. "I know that smell."  
  
Loneliness, Lister wanted to say. Desperation. The need to touch and be comforted. You should know all that intimately, you smegger.   
  
"It's spunk, Rimmer. I just jerked off in the laundry pile."  
  
He smiled at the sound Rimmer made.  
  
  
 _-_

_Flat_  
  
"Is it because my head is flat?"   
  
"Nah, Kryten. Come on. Your head's fine, you know, for an android."   
  
Kryten sighed. "For an android."  
  
"I like you the way you are," said Lister, and regretted it the moment Kryten's face lit up.   
  
Yeah… Sometimes you just wanted a round head.

_-_

_Head_  
  
The Cat curled up at Lister's side sometimes after a session of TV and tuna, purring contentedly. Sometimes Lister would reach down to pet his head. Not in a sex kind of way. Just like you'd pet any cat.   
  
His skin was warm and living and it made Lister ache.   
  
_-_

_Shake_  
  
"You don't even know me," Kochanski said during one of their fights.   
  
But he did. She was pretentious and cagey and wanted only things that made her look good, or things that tore her down. He'd made her a symbol of something else once but he loved her just the same, cracks and all.  
  
 _-_

_Box_  
  
"Will you look back at life in this tin-can and think, this is where I belonged?   
  
"It's a kind of an island.  
  
"No sun," he told his reflection. "No fun. No coconuts. So what do you do?  
  
"Put one foot in front of the other and talk to yourself, apparently."   
  
_-_

_Review_  
  
In his dream the placid seas and the shading trees were pale, colourless like faded paper, and then ripped, like paper, as a GELF ship crashed into the water. Lister woke with a jerk.  
  
The dream was gone. Sirens were off. Lister threw off his covers and became a hero.


End file.
